Waiting for a 7 inch now that the allure of new and shiny has worn off. I've tinkered with the tablets as they are and they're just too big for a portable device, imho. I wouldn't mind thicker if it fit in a pocket or holster, but 10 inch never will.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

Waiting for a 7 inch now that the allure of new and shiny has worn off. I've tinkered with the tablets as they are and they're just too big for a portable device, imho. I wouldn't mind thicker if it fit in a pocket or holster, but 10 inch never will.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

The 64GB model is only good if you live in the cloud, but the 128GB model is actually pretty good as far as storage goes. You can easily get all your apps on there unless you are looking to get your steam catalog all installed. The one nice thing about the surface that is lacking in iPads and other tablets is the fact that you can just plug in more storage. Get a little USB3 thumb drive or external HD, and you have virtually unlimited storage. They also give you a microSD slot for what I would consider more permanent removable storage, since it can stay in to just give you some extra storage space without changing the form factor at all like a USB protrusion might do.

I am waiting for a 128GB model to become available again at the MS online store to order one. I don't think it is the be all end all of tablets and hybrids, but I think its a pretty great device, and I personally am within arms length of a beastly i7 SSD based desktop about 80% of the time I am doing work.

My only criticism of the device is the lack of docking accessory, everything else is awesome. The touch keyboard is way easier to use than I was expecting. Our department picked up a couple with both touch and type keyboards and we're all really impressed. Any larger or any smaller and it loses it's ability to act as either of the devices it's supposed to replace. It's a super nice balanced hybrid device. My boss is currently using it full time to see how it fairs as a replacement for his normal Dell laptop and iPad and he loves it thus far(granted he's only been doing this for three days now). He makes a good point that he probably won't walk into an Executive meeting with the Red touch cover on, though. Heaven forbid there be some nice colors in that environment. *sarcasm*

Waiting for a 7 inch now that the allure of new and shiny has worn off. I've tinkered with the tablets as they are and they're just too big for a portable device, imho. I wouldn't mind thicker if it fit in a pocket or holster, but 10 inch never will.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

You fail to grasp one very important fact. This thing is meant to be used in a business environment. It's not really targeted yet at the home user.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

You DO understand that the Pro is already at one end of the spectrum as far as the CPU/battery is concerned.

The GPU in my 2010 era i7 laptop is specced for 35 Watts, which might mean a 7" tablet playing a game would get furiously hot for the less than an hour that any reasonably-sized battery would last. It's hard to imagine squeezing all the power and cooling into anything resembling our current definition of “tablet.” Not sure that's going to be a big seller, or even that it'd make it past the first draft stage.

I would have tried to buy one if the 128GB + type cover was $1k. It wasn't, so I waited. Now I won't buy one until they reveal the type+battery cover. I won't buy more than one ridiculously priced cover, so I will wait. And the longer they delay the battery cover, the closer Haswell becomes. So I may wait for that, too.

If you wait to buy a mouse a Surface, then it will want a battery+type cover. And if you wait long enough to buy the cover, it will want the Haswell. And if you wait long enough to buy the Haswell…

Waiting for an Intel Atom based Surface here, RT was a strategic mistake and a waste of resources, Emballmer failed hard with it

RT wasn't the mistake, using Tegra 3 was. Take out desktop mode, stick in a Tegra 4/Snapdragon 600 or 800, upgrade to a 1080p screen w/ digitizer, keep the price at $499 and I think they'd have a very decent product. Oh, and perhaps cut the price of the touch/type covers by $50.

I'm excited by the Pro, but if I'm honest with myself, all I really need is RT. A nice, small tablet for all my gaming PDFs, eReading (Nook and Kindle! Woo!), watching videos, etc. If I need to run Windows apps, I've got a laptop and desktop already...

I was in the wait for haswell camp before launch but honestly the surface pro is awesome. People need to ignore the idiotic reviews of it (I think only anand's is objective) by reviewers that can't see beyond their own use case and try the thing for themselves. It really is a great product and I use mine in all sorts of ways, not just at a desk.

My surface has been with me at all times since I bought it. I get more use out of my surface than any other device I own (and I own a lot). The whining about weight is overdone. I hold mine on a 45 minute commute each way and I rarely get to sit down. I'm not some huge muscular freak. Yes, if you hold it out from your body with one hand like and idiot, it will get heavy fast, but there is a way to cradle the surface against your body that is very comfortable and places no strain on your hands/wrists.

For me, the battery life is ok. More would be nice, but not in a trade-off for weight. My surface gets me through my commute to/from work, lunch, and some time during the day, and I think a lot of people probably use tablets in a similar way, but more would be nice. If you're actually using it as a work computer for multiple hours per day at the office, get a second charger. As it is, it gets me through my day.

Biggest thing i'd like to see in v2 (aside from cellular and more battery) is a way to store the pen in the device. I've bought a couple extra to just leave lying around house/office, but most people won't want to do that. The pen is awesome though.

Overally, I'm extremely happy I bought it. This is not a product you really need to wait for v2 for. v1 is very very good assuming you can live without cellular (and 80% of tablet buyers can/do already).

Waiting for a 7 inch now that the allure of new and shiny has worn off. I've tinkered with the tablets as they are and they're just too big for a portable device, imho. I wouldn't mind thicker if it fit in a pocket or holster, but 10 inch never will.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

The 64GB model is only good if you live in the cloud, but the 128GB model is actually pretty good as far as storage goes. You can easily get all your apps on there unless you are looking to get your steam catalog all installed. .

No, I can't. And wish people would stop saying that like they know my storage needs with unequivocal certainty. My apps--work apps, I'm not sticking WoW or GW2 on this (though, that would be sweet and actually make this more of a replacement technology than another mobile device that insists I limit what I can do with it)--and important files require a minimum of 143.5 GB (done the math) including the OS for the PC not to need external storage.

If I'm paying 1200 dollars for tech, its first requirement is that it replace existing technology and do the job(s) as well or better than what it replaces. As of now, the Surface RT and Pro only replace a $200 nexus 7 and sacrifice portability. It can't do as good a job as my laptop, so it will only situationally replace that. It has no comparison with my desktop for processing or graphics capability.

That makes it a toy. A $1200 toy with keyboard. Alternatively there are 10 inch tablets coming to market that do have the storage needs I require, the processing and graphics capability i expect. they will cost more. I will pay more for them if they meet or exceed my needs.

But, as I stated in the OP, a 7 inch will give the portabillity of a tablet that I expect and would be worth the price to have--basically--an ultrabook in my pocket. M$'s counter has been that their programs dont work well on 7 inch displays. Good. I don't plan to use them if they can't figure out a way to minimalize their ribbon. I'll keep using google docs for content creation and either print as PDF and mail it to my clients or translate the work to office at need...as I currently do now.

So Surface RT is just...stupid and Pro remains a toy. The sooner people realize that, the sooner they demand better hardware under the hood and the sooner the device becomes a useful replacement for the laptop form factor.

I had a complete opposite reaction I thought the hardware was cool but the software was not very good. The start screen is obviously wrong. By making it animate and change that much it makes it difficult to navigate. It has no depth and the layout is sometimes messy that also does not help finding your destination. The designers went for the looks but they forgot the function.

I grabbed a 128GB Surface Pro, primarily to use for native Microsoft Office, remote access (ssh, RDP, and vSphere client) and general light tablet duties (Netflix/Kindle).

Having worked with it for a few days, my first impressions are that it is adequate at a uniquely large set of things, including all of the needs I have for it.

That said, it excels at nothing. There's not one thing it can do that something else I own can't do better.

So the takeaway for me is that functionality per pound, the Surface Pro is a great device to carry around -- paired with a hotspot-capable smartphone for connectivity -- for those situations where every pound counts. Fortunately, that's what I got it for.

In general, the hardware seems decent for x86 in this form factor, but it's making those same sort of adequate-not-excel compromises. It's a bit too thick. It's a bit too heavy. Battery life is too short. (Three desires that openly conflict, I admit.) The aspect ratio makes the display a bit too small vertically. The tear-off keyboard is inspired, but the floppy nature of it (as much-maligned by the Ars review) is indeed a letdown.

On the software side, Windows 8 seems like it still has a ways to go. Trying to thread the needle between laptop and tablet isn't easy and while it's a credible and ambitious effort, they're not quite there yet. Hopefully they've invested enough money in this that they can't afford not to make rapid progress.

Waiting for an Intel Atom based Surface here, RT was a strategic mistake and a waste of resources, Emballmer failed hard with it

RT wasn't the mistake, using Tegra 3 was. Take out desktop mode [...] I think they'd have a very decent product.

The only reason for the desktop mode on the RT is to run Office. And if you take out Office, much of the advantage of Windows on ARM vs Android or iOS is gone. (Make that "almost all of the advantage" for business users.) And apparently rewriting Office for Metro is a no-go, too, otherwise they would have done it already.

Wrong. Any ARM CPU in a Windows tablet is a waste of money by stupid Emballmer, why? Because ARM is exactly the same as Clover Trail - same battery life, same size, performance, weight etc, MINUS ONE HUGE THING - ALL THE WINDOWS X86 APPS!

Why then buy ARM tablet with Windows when you can buy an Intel Atom tablet which is sooo much better, and costs the same?

When Clover Trail+ arrives in Win8 tablets the poor situation with Windows on ARM will only get worse.

And don't even get me started about Bay Trail and the whole new development with 22nm Atoms with redesigned OOO cores inside.

Emballmer is a poster child of corporate stupidity. Wasting so much money on useless ARM crap when Atoms were right there, next to him, literally one phone call to Intel away... gosh the guy is dumb

Weren't Atom CPUs bad jokes when they likely had to start working on all this? I mean, bad, terrible, horrible jokes?

The move to include ARM seems forward looking to me, and as they get better? Fantastic. But had you told me Atom CPUs were going to be worth something a year or three ago, I probably would have rolled my eyes and laughed.

"Suuuure. Who told you that? Someone from Intel's marketing?"

Ive heard it suggested that the first RT devices are practically "practice" runs. With the new ARMs on the way, I'm curious to see how things pan out. Likewise, AMD is getting into the game as well... This is probably the first time in a while I've found CPUs interesting

Waiting for a 7 inch now that the allure of new and shiny has worn off. I've tinkered with the tablets as they are and they're just too big for a portable device, imho. I wouldn't mind thicker if it fit in a pocket or holster, but 10 inch never will.

Also hope they boost the specs on pro if they ever shrink it. i7, more ram, bigger ssd. For the price, I don't want to compromise as much as these things seem to insist.

You fail to grasp one very important fact. This thing is meant to be used in a business environment. It's not really targeted yet at the home user.

So where would a business go to order 1000 of them and talk about servicing contracts?

Without business support, it's a consumer device. Nothing wrong with that, but let's not pretend it's a business device just yet.

I grabbed a 128GB Surface Pro, primarily to use for native Microsoft Office, remote access (ssh, RDP, and vSphere client) and general light tablet duties (Netflix/Kindle).

Having worked with it for a few days, my first impressions are that it is adequate at a uniquely large set of things, including all of the needs I have for it.

That said, it excels at nothing. There's not one thing it can do that something else I own can't do better.

My problems was it's far too heavy for any tablet use, for the money I'll take a regular keyboard, and if I'm spending that much on a gimmicky laptop, I don't want to have to use a little metal flap to keep the thing upright.

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't given up on the Surface yet. By the start of next year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Well as a New Zealander who has been spitting tacks about the lack of it being sold in New Zealand, I am happy about the good news. For me I'm going straight for the Windows RT given that 99% of what I do is either in the browser or using Microsoft Office so I'm pretty happy with what is being offered. Add to that if the rumours are true about Windows 'blue' being a pushed out as a pretty major update for Windows 8 it should mean a positive roll on effect to Windows RT devices with improved ARM optimisations etc.

I bought the 32GiB RT on release with the Cyan touch cover, I like it a lot. I use onenote a lot to keep meeting notes, task lists, etc, which has made it an easy replacement for all the pen and paper note books that I used to carry from meeting to meeting. The included Office apps make it nice for opening documents that people have sent around. The touch cover has become a little frayed on the corners but not signifcant damage/issues.Works great in the kitchen for pulling recipies up, either in a metro app or in a web browser.

While nothing is ever perfect, the build quality is really good, and significantly better than all the Asus/Acer Android tablets in the same price range that I've put my hands on (the Nexus seemed pretty good, but didn't have much hands on time). It would have been nice to have the higher res screen and built in pen support on the RT, but it is a really good first stab and the RT has decent battery life. Also the wifi reception is excelent!

btw: I'm one of the minority who believes desktop apps don't make sense on a tablet.

I was interested to see that the Surface Pro was well received by Gabe of Penny Arcade as a decent computer for drawing stuff.

Thanks for the link. This is what I want a tablet for. I'm really only looking for Wacom support, decent Photoshop performance, and good screen resolution. Battery, weight, disk capacity, etc, are all important, but less critical.

I was interested to see that the Surface Pro was well received by Gabe of Penny Arcade as a decent computer for drawing stuff.

Thanks for the link. This is what I want a tablet for. I'm really only looking for Wacom support, decent Photoshop performance, and good screen resolution. Battery, weight, disk capacity, etc, are all important, but less critical.

I believe that pen pressure-sensitivity isn't working in a lot of apps - namely Photoshop - due to there being different pen APIs (Surface ships with a driver that only has the newer API, and a lot/most apps only support the old one, or something like that). At some point a Wacom driver update will fix that, but it hasn't been delivered yet.